New Orleans defending itself is no reason for shame: Jarvis DeBerry

Something about us gives the larger country the impression that we have no right to point an accusing finger at those who've injured us.

Something about us has others convinced that no matter how many dead bodies we've seen, no matter how great the damage to our homes and coast, no matter how disorienting the displacement or how destructive the disaster, it is our obligation to shut up about it all and hum a Lee Greenwood tune instead.

Ted Jackson / The Times-PicayuneRalph Pausina clings to his rooftop in the Lakeview area and frantically tells rescuers of a neighbor that was calling for help all night long just to the back of his property. When the rescuers found the man in his attic, he was already dead. Neither man, it's clear, sees New Orleans and South Louisiana as injured parties owed appropriate recompense. To the contrary, each sees us as childish and insufficiently American, when we demand that those who hurt us pay us. Myers has apologized for his nasty remarks. After criticizing Obama and expressing reservations about 1964's watershed Civil Rights Act, Paul has tucked tail and run whimpering from the press.

Perhaps Myers was unaware of this, but, as The Tennessean has reported, some people in the Nashville area came to believe that the Army Corps of Engineers -- that is to say, the federal government -- deliberately flooded their homes to save more valuable properties in the area. The rumors of government complicity were so pervasive that the corps' district office created a web page to address them. The first questions on that page are "Did my property flood because you opened the dam?" and "If Corps dams did their job, why was the flooding so bad?"

Even so, when Myers decided to characterize the people of Nashville, he said, "I thought the people in Tennessee, unlike -- I'm not going to name names -- when a natural disaster hits people weren't standing on a rooftop trying to blame the government, OK. They helped each other out through this."

A news story in Monday's Tennessean begins, "Homeowners in line for buyouts of their flood-ravaged houses will have to wait at least 10 months before they see a check from the government to purchase their properties. State and local officials are working on a program to clear more than 500 homes and businesses in Davidson County's flood way, the areas along a waterway most prone to damage." And who will decide how much money the state will get for buyouts? The Federal Emergency Management Agency, that is to say, the federal government.

It does not appear that the corps did anything negligent in Nashville. May 1983 had previously been Nashville's wettest month on record, but Nashville did not get as much rain then as it got May 1 and 2 when 13.57 inches fell. New Orleans flooded after Katrina because the floodwalls built by the corps fell down. Not so in Nashville. Though overtopped by water, the dams stood up as they were designed, the corps says. And yet, the newspaper there says homeowners are lining up for government buy-outs. But they're not standing on their rooftops. That makes it better, right?

Paul, a darling of the Tea Party, demonstrates how hard it is to run for a government position when you are reflexively anti-government. If Paul's inclined to take the side of the polluter when millions of gallons of oil are washing up on America's shores, he might as well remain the outsider he says he is.

Whether it's poorly constructed levees that caused death and destruction or an oil rig explosion that caused death and destruction, we have the right -- in fact, we have the obligation -- to speak up in our own self-interest and place the blame where it belongs.

As the saying goes, it's a sad frog who doesn't croak for his own pond. We might not get everything we deserve from those who have done us wrong, but if we don't at least stand up and tell the truth about what's been done to us, we wouldn't be deserving of anything -- least of all, respect.